Application performance management (APM) relates to the monitoring and management of performance and availability of various software applications and related components in a given environment. APM tools may be used to detect and diagnose application performance issues in the environment and maintain an expected level of service.
Typically, a single APM tool (or a single type of APM tool) is implemented in an information technology (IT) environment. Thus, it may be very difficult to instrument a single APM tool to effectively monitor and manage all application performance and the various components of those applications deployed in the IT environment. It is particularly difficult when the applications are distributed in virtual, cloud-based systems, which may increase the variability and unpredictability of the measurements. Moreover, the use of a single APM tool imposes a great dependency on its out-of-the-box features without much room for customizability or flexibility. Even if additional APM tools are implemented in the same environment to distribute the management-related tasks, it may be difficult to integrate and aggregate the numerous tools and corresponding data.
Accordingly, there is a need for a high-performing platform that can aggregate many different types of APM tools and efficiently monitor and manage all applications and related components in an environment.